It's Sunday and I've done two loads of laundry, mopped the floors, emptied out the compose bin and cooked tuna and sweetcorn pasta for the dog I'm looking after for two weeks, she thinks she is human. Little does she know how it's hard being a human when you've been a goddess for a day! I'm back down on earth after a whole day as the most beloved Chinese goddess - Guan Yin.
Yesterday's Silk Screen celebrations in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Glasow ran simultaneously throughout the day and was a huge success. The day was organised by the BBC and Emergency Exit Arts who did a grand job of co-ordinating the event and finding great entertainment. The aim was to promote British Chinese culture, mark the end of the China Now festival and highlight the BBC Videonation diaries that had been made (click here to view 'Adopted Identity' ) by the British Chinese community all around the nation.
My dad Ron!
The other people from the Birmingham Videonation group were also there yesterday - so it was a mini-reunion. Their films can be seen on the Videonation website.
My personal favourite is Julie Sohoo's film West To East as it's endearing and I've never met anyone from 'the Valley' before so it's interesting how we have things in common despite growing up on very different places. We realised we went to the same University at the same time, and were in the same building! I think I might remember her (there were very few British Chinee students in at Uni back in 1995/6), but I'm not one hundred percent sure. We both had English friends and at University I thought I was a basketball playing (yet quite academic) gangster! It's funny how your identity changes over time and you realise that really you just need to be YOURSELF!
I love Julie's grandmother too! I love Chinese grandmothers. I've recently got to know my own a little bit more after meeting her a couple of years ago and she's an wonderful woman. My first fictional short story 'Lychees and Bingo Balls' features a Chinese grandmother who braves it in the U.K and I think people who are older and move somewhere totally different in terms of culture, cuisine and basically everything are amazing. I know that small cultural enclaves form around ethnic communities, and I saw that this weekend during the festivities where a lot of the Chinese community turned out to support the Silk Screens event.
I think the local Chinese people were happy with my portrayal of their beloved Guan Yin (they called me 'Gwun Yam' in Cantonese, no, not Yam Yam!) and one lady told me: "Gwun Yam, she is dignified. No big grinning!" I put on my best demure yet compassionate face during the day and only grinned when my friends were about!
I had done a lot of research on the goddess and discovered that she was a lot like me (although I've yet to reach Bodhisattva status!). The goddess Guan Yin has many legends told about her and is quite a multi-dimensional being. You can't always find one definition of who she or or what she represents (very much like me I feel). In some representations she is androgenous, and in others she is a feminine beauty with a bust and a full face of make-up. In some stories she has helpers, and in others she sits on her lotus in a contemplative mood, happy in her solitude.
I enjoyed the whole process of 'becoming' the goddess too. My good friend Ramona, a Buddhist and very creative person helped me make the costume. Together we bounced ideas off each other as the best way to personify this important deity for her manifestion in Victoria Square and I think the end result did us both proud.
I discovered a little of my own inner goddess as a result of participating in the Silk Screens Festival. I also got to know about the Chinese myths and legends surrounding this important figure and told members of the public who I was and why she was so important for Chinese people. I think Guan Yin's universality is a trait I would very much like to have as a writer, and so not only was it an honour to 'perform' and be a goddess for a day but I know that other good things will come of it - both in terms of my personal journey and as a developing writer seeking new ways to connect to humanity (cheesy? Yes, of course I'm cheesy...I dress up as mythical figures in my spare time!).
